Chevrolet

Gearheads who were around during NASA’s heyday – roughly the mid-1960s to the early-1970s – no doubt remember that one of the perks of being an astronaut at that time was receiving a new Chevrolet Corvette in which to get around while on earth. It was a match made in marketing heaven: The Right Stuff-types loved tooling around in their sexy, powerful and all-American sports cars. And Chevrolet loved the copious amounts of publicity.

No surprise, then, that Chevy made the Corvettes/rockets connection in the very slick ad that debuted during this week’s MLB All-Star Game broadcast. While it doesn’t mention the astronauts, it does play up how the Vette and the early American space program were kindred spirits of sorts: both were out to prove that American creativity and determination could take on and beat the competition from abroad. Still not getting the red, white and blue hued warm and fuzzies? Watch the ad after the jump.

Many of today's high-dollar, high-performance cars feature handbuilt engines put together by one person, and that one person usually winds up signing the finished product. This provides the buyers of vehicles so equipped with peace-of-mind that the engine in their car was carefully and lovingly assembled by another human being, not to mention being able to show it off to your friends. Does it even matter that some engine builders have John Hancock's illegible enough to make many doctors' chickenscratch look typewritten? No. No it does not. Nothing can top that for sheer coolness, right?

Chevrolet reckons there is one very good way to top that, actually, and that involves letting customers put together their car's engine themselves. That's right, people ordering a new Corvette Z06 or ZR1 will be able to check the box for "Engine Build Experience" on the option sheet that will let them visit GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan and - with start-to-finish guidance from some of the plant's pros of course - assemble the LS7 or LS9 V8 destined for their new Vette. Sounds great, huh?

What stands out in a crowd, likes to make lots of noise and doesn't require its operator to have a working relationship with rocket science? Why that would be the new 2010 Chevy Camaro SS. After being teased in concept form starting in 2006, and making appearances in several Transformer movies (ok, like 2,) the 5th generation muscle car from the General hit the market in the spring of 2009 as as 2010 model. Thankfully, the concept styling has been left mostly intact without turning the Camaro into a vehicle that's more concept than car.

I'm going to cut right to the chase -- the 2010 Chevy Camaro is a true rock star. Let the love fest begin... The American muscle car scene has been stuck in a rut of mediocrity most of the last decade, but of late, there has been a resurgence of inspiration. With the latest reincarnations of the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger the landscape has changed considerably. There was a time when comfort was thrown out the window, cornering ability disregarded and reliability an afterthought. Now, you get all of these with same breakneck speed of old. That said, the Camaro has seemed to emerge as the true champion of the people. Participants at last year's SEMA Show were wowed as the Camaro stole the show. We didn't really know what to think until just recently when we got the opportunity to put the car through its paces and officially enter the fan club. 

If there are two things most 21st century Americans living in major metropolitan areas can’t seem to live without, they are the automobile and the mobile phone. And as the mobile phone has evolved into the smartphone, the opportunities to build closer ties between the two contraptions become more abundant and easier to realize. With that in mind, GM is working on an app for Android-powered smartphones for use in conjunction with the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.

Considering who makes the Android OS, it should come as no surprise that Google Maps will provide the proverbial meat of the navigation component of the app. As such, there will be a voice-activated, location-sensitive destination search function as well as the ability to see your real-time location on a map. OnStar will provide the proverbial potatoes in the form of verbal turn-by-turn directions. (Other functions will include battery charge scheduling and monitoring and remote start.) However, the navigation function won’t be available in the first version of the app; you’ll have to wait for version 2.0 to enjoy the aforementioned features.

That true performance cars can only be rear-wheel drive (and in some glorious instances all-wheel drive) is taken as the gospel truth by a great many gearheads. Never mind that the majority of the world’s new cars pull rather than push themselves down the road, and that the washcloth of automotive history is quite damp with fun rides derided by some as “wrong-wheel drive.” In fact, we managed to name ten front-drivers that are buckets of fun. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here they are.

The Chevrolet Corvette has long been regarded as “America’s sports car,” but there have certainly been faster and meaner pretenders to that throne over the years; do the names Cobra and Viper ring any bells? And let’s not forget the numerous foreign offerings that would not only beat the base Vette to a pulp, they would also steal its lunch money and use said lunch money to buy flowers for the girl the Corvette had a crush on. No, that’s not an anecdote from our own youth…

Anyway, Chevy has never much cared for having its top performer getting smacked around by outsiders (or insiders, for that matter; see “GNX, Buick”) and, as a result, has occasionally returned fire with a Corvette that has its phasers set to “kill.” In the early ‘90s, that super Vette was the ZR-1. Today, it’s the ZR1. In addition to the inclusion or omission of a hyphen, there are plenty of differences between these two track stars, though they share many of the same philosophies. Which one should be on your list? Let’s find out.

Lately, car manufacturers have seemingly been focused on only one thing: gaps in the market. The Toyota Venza filled a gap I didn't know existed, somewhere between city-capable SUVs and passenger cars. BMW did the same thing with the 5 series Grand-Touring, an ugly car that's apparently for people who need more room than a trunk provides but want less space than a wagon would give them. I guess if you're constantly transporting acute triangles, it's the car for you.

Either way, the people that call the shots are building a car for everything and anything they can think of. I find this highly annoying. Except here: Chevrolet has built a new Corvette to fill the gap between the Z06 and the ZR1, called the 2011 Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition. Finally a crossover vehicle that makes sense. 

Germany and the United states have been playing a version of “wife swap” lately. U.S. shops like Switzer and Sharkwerks have been building amazing, highly-modified Porsches faster than we can type. At the same time German tuners are creating American-built powerhouses like the Geiger Cars' recent Camaros and crazy two-tone 800hp Corvette. Well the formula appears to be working, because at the Essen Auto show there is a new American-made, German-injected powerhouse. It's by Loma Performance and called the C6 BlackforceOne.

If the name sounds like Obama's current mode of air travel, it's because Loma wanted it to. They say the car is “clearly reminiscent” of the President's plane. Well, they do both possess the power to kill you, but the car is far more intimidating to look at. The various cuts, points, and folds on the new body panels look more SR-71 than 747.The mean flared fenders are made from carbon fiber, as are the front and rear lips. It is only available in 3 matte-finished colors; Stealth Black, Eurofighter Grey,and White Storm. I think the black would be a perfect replacement for Bruce Wayne's crashed LP-640. From every angle, in any color, the car looks evil. This car probably brings its own thunderstorms wherever it goes to add to the already ominous arrival.